** My Intellectual Flakes **

I have given Twitter a little try after read Prof. Lawley’s blog. I have to admit that it was not for me. At first, it took me 10 minutes to sign up. It kept showing that someone already took the name… can’t believe so many Chinese people with the same name as me are interested in Twitter Anyway, I guess I already forgot the name I settled for after failed attempt of more than 3 times.

Some people call it micro-blog. For me it’s like expanded version of the status message on my MSN. I think it should integrate with MSN, so whenever I log in to MSN, there is a link to the longer version of “what I am doing” is available.

OK, I have to admit that Twitter is not for me. Joshua Porter pointed out that the value of the social software is really person specific. He says:

… each person has their own social lives, their own social circle, and
thus their own social values. What is important to their social life
will almost certainly be unimportant to us because we have our own to
worry about.

Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, most social software is built around
providing personalized, socially-focused conversation. It’s
person-centered and as a result is difficult for anybody but that
person to really appreciate: the value becomes opaque in this way.

I think it’OK to say Twitter is not for me. I am not feeling ashamed to admit that. What we seeing now is more emergent technologies catering to specific needs of various users. Richard also argued that such social and presence tools as Twitter, Facebook might fit college students with active and dyanmic social life.

My entire Facebook presence stream consists of “at work”, “now at
home”, repeat, and my group of friends stays pretty much static
year-over-year. I think that’s a reality of the “over 30″ life.

For me, Twitter is just a tool to keep people updated of what happen to me. It probably a good way to keep the weak ties/ acquitances. I probably prefer the deeper conversation and interaction than that.